Board of directors

The board of directors consists of experienced members from the biotechnology industry.

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARDPreben Bruun-Nyzell

Christine Widstrand, PhD

Preben Bruun-Nyzell is a finance executive with more than 20 years international experience in finance and finance systems. He was previously Chief Financial Officer of Qatalum in Qatar, an aluminum producer with annual sales of USD 1.5 billion, and has held senior positions with EMAL in Abu Dhabi, Arqaam Capital in Dubai, Accenture and PwC in London and Hoffmann-La Roche AG in Basel, Switzerland. Preben holds a degree in Business Administration from Lancaster University in the UK and Università Bocconi, Milan, Italy. He is Chairman of the Board of 2A Pharma AB.

Christine Widstrand is the EVP of LU Innovation AB ( Lund University's holding company ) that supports and finances start -up companies and licensing deals coming from university research. Christine is responsible for the Life Science portfolio . She has > 15 years of experience in research and development, including the start-up of academic companies. Valuable in this context is her international experience around the financing, licensing , sales and marketing obtained from roles as co-founder and / or director of several life science companies. Christine is one of the founders of MIP Technologies AB, now part of Biotage, where she had various management positions (CEO , CBO) 2000-2009. Christine has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Lund University .

Johan Evenäs, PhD

Johan Evenäs received a PhD in biophysical chemistry at LTH and carried out post-doctoral studies within NMR structural biology at Univ. of Toronto (1999-2001). He was then recruited to AstraZeneca where he was a highly rated projects and chemistry leader in early drug projects covering both internal resources and external (outsourcing). Johan was also Secretary of the global patent Committee for Airway & Inflammation. He has complemented his scientific knowledge and professional experience with courses in leadership, entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, and trade & and intellectual property law. Johan has 19 scientific articles and is co-inventor on three patents. He is CEO of RGD since its launch in 2011.

Søren Nielsen, MD, dr.med.

Søren Nielsen, MD, has held full professorships at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Aarhus University and at Aalborg University since 1997. He is one of the world’s leading scientists in the field of cellular/molecular biology, physiological and pathological studies of aquaporins, sodium channels and transporters with more than 380 articles published. He brings also invaluable business knowledge to Apoglyx, through his experience with Action Pharma where he was co-founder and Executive (CEO 2001-2010, COO 2010-2012) and raised EUR 30 million to conduct clinical trials (Phase 2a & 2b) with AP214 – a candidate for acute renal failure – in Europe and the United States. AP214 was acquired in May 2012 by Abbott, Chicago (~ $ 110 million). For his research, he has received several awards, including the Novo Nordisk Prize, the Novo Nordisk Foundation 2009. He is CEO of 2A Pharma AB.

Prof. Per Kjellbom

Prof. Per Kjellbom, PhD, Biochemistry and Structural biology, Lund University Prof. Kjellbom holds a PhD in plant biochemistry, LU since 1987. He performed postdoctoral studies at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, United States (1987-1989). He is head of Division since 2010 for Biochemistry & structural biology at Lund University, and member of the Swedish National Committee for Molecular Biosciences at the Royal Academy of Sciences. Professor Kjellbom is a world leader in aquaporin-research and has over 60 scientific articles. He has previously been the CEO of Hydrogene Lund AB, a small biotechnology company focused on the commercial application of knowledge relating to aquaporin in biotechnology and medicine.

andreas norlin, phd

Andreas Norlin is CEO of Xkout Bioscience AB and previously Vice President at Novo Nordisk. He has extensive experience of leading clinical development of drug candidates in several indications, including inflammation and diabetes types 1 and 2. He also brings regulatory experience from both the US and EU. Andreas has a PhD in Zoophysiology from Lund University.